Mr Messham, now 49, was one of hundreds of children horrifically abused in children's homes in North Wales during the 1970s and 1980s. He lived at the now closed Bryn Estyn boys home, Wrexham during the 1970s. Allegations of abuse at the homes began to emerge in the 1990s and the Waterhouse Inquiry Report in 2000 looked into the claims.

OK let’s pause there for a moment. The BBC produces a witness who claims he was raped numerous occasions when he was young at the Bryn Estyn boys home in Wales. That’s pretty significant. Yet the allegations are not new. Numerous allegations were made back in the 1990’s and an inquiry was held.

William Hague, the then Secretary of State for Wales, announced in 1996 a judicial inquiry into abuse in North Wales children's homes, he described it as one of the "saddest chapters" in the history of social care and insisted there would be "no cover up". Yet it was. He announced that a "senior figure" would investigate "truly dreadful" child abuse claims some of which involved a senior Tory figure who was prominent under the Thatcher regime. But he didn’t.

BBC names the shadowy politician to be Lords a leaping Robbie McAlpine. Robbie denies it, threatens to sue and heads start to roll at the BBC. Sad. Very sad. Sounds like Alfonzo Gagliano and Jim Brown. You can’t sue someone for telling the truth.